Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

You should always worry about chickens. What else is there worth worrying about?
If you are seriously worried then what I would do first is weigh each hen and then worm them. Weigh them every day. You can then establish a normal weight for them.

Sounds good - I have been weighing them for baseline so I can weigh again over the next few days. They all just got wormed.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I

So you think I shouldn't worry that after a full day foraging and with a visibly full crop they fall on commercial food mash like I hadn't fed them for a week? It was take your hand away or risk losing a finger time when I brought it out which is why I got to worrying.

If it was me I wouldn't worry, you've said they have access to feed all the time? I trust my chickens to eat what they need. And they don't always have feed available, I put out each day what I think they should be eating (i weighed my scoop) split into a morning and an afternoon feeder top up. I don't want to feed every sparrow in the entire neighborhood. They are all perfectly fine. I leave them apples (which I get for free) while they're shut in their run in the morning. I like them a little hungry when they leave their run so they go forage instead of just sunning about like lazy lumps.

 

[Shadrach]

Very interesting - I was going to ask for your experience on time to fill up a crop and whether filling with foraged food might lead to it getting full faster with lower nutrients relative to the more nutritionally dense commercial food.
I notice that in general mine eat (forage or commercial food or a mix) for a couple of hours and then take a break to preen or sunbathe or whatever and then start eating again. That all makes sense.
Today however they were out for hours and hours eating constantly. There were a lot of crawling and flying bugs and to me it looked like they just couldn't resist - like an 'all you can eat buffet'. When they came back in for the night their crops were bulging, but when I tried to give Bernadette her vitamin B which I do in a mash of commercial chicken crumbles, they all mobbed the plate as if they were starving.
So then I worried that maybe because they were out foraging all day that they didn't eat enough and really were starving.
I know that sounds like nonsense but every one of mine I have taken to a vet has received the observation that they seem under weight. I don't know enough to compare so I am a bit paranoid that they aren't getting enough to eat even though they have free access to commercial feed and on most days access to a reasonably big area to forage.

How chickens eat. It's another one of those it depends questions.
The big pile of balanced feed is a rare occurance for free rangers and feral chickens. They bit feed eating whatever they can find that's edible until their crop is full, or conditions make foraging hazardous. They forage spread out with their rooster watching in general.

This was and is part of the roosters Calcium problem when fed commercial feed. He gets a massive Calcium hit three times a day perhaps. He doesn't eat much during the forage sessions and very little of the nice stuff because he gives that to his hens.


When chickens are well fed they'll forgo the boring stuff for something unusual. They'll eat the boring stuff when they're hungry enough.

 

[Iluveggers]

It isn't Shad's poll but was put up by @U_stormcrow

Thank you!

That depends who you ask to some extent. It was the change from mainly rural chicken keepers to the quarter acre/whatever the US standard was/is if they have one. The post you linked to is part of it. Chicken keeping became an urban hobby. It supports a quite a few small businesses as well as adding another market for the large commercial suppliers.
So, I see the American model as urban, probably hen only groups, kept permenantly confined in a coop and run. The supply of hens is primarily through hatcheries with prefered breeders.
This is the core model for BYC.
That's partly why the Coop building and coop pages are so valued by BYC.

Much of the advice on BYC is biased with that model in mind. In most cases it doesn't matter because not many farmers take their chickens to the vet for example.

The poll came about after a bit of a debate between me and U_Stromcrow. It was about the so called 10% treat rule which I said was nonsense for many chicken keepers. My reasoning being, that even in a couple of hours of say supervised free ranging, the hens in particular will eat a lot of stuff, grass, bugs, grit, etc etc. I've seem hens go from crop empty to crop full in an hour on good forage. Compost heaps speed the process up. This is on a morning feed.
I estimated by volume that a hen that packs her crop from empty to full, three times a day will have ingested the equivalent by volume of 100grams of commercial feed. Also, it is unlikely she will have consumed nutritionaly complete forage by eating one selection.
If the above crop volume estimate is near enough then its quite possible for a hen to fill her crop in a couple of hours on reasonable forage. Not a lot of point trying to apply the 10% treat rule to that hen given she's just eaten 33.3... of her intake by volume on non commercial balanced feed.
U_Stormcrow stated he was giving advice for what he believed were the majority and that majority was the fully confined coop and run model.

I didn't think and hadn't thought for some time that the permanently confined coop and run model represent the majority on BYC. The poll is U_Stormcrows effort to put some data behind the two views.

Shad, how do you think the deep litter run changes things vs a regular run? More nutrients and foraging within the run scratching through the compost buildup. I’m debating it…my chickens will have about 20 feet per bird in the run when I am at work…more space after but I was thinking the deep litter method would bring with it many benefits compared to just a dirt run.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thanks both. I will stop worrying unless I see a big swing in weight.
I think maybe they like this mash because I never give them mash normally and maybe they like the bright orange color.
It is just their regular food with vitamin B2 capsules added and mixed with water.

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you!

Shad, how do you think the deep litter run changes things vs a regular run? More nutrients and foraging within the run scratching through the compost buildup. I’m debating it…my chickens will have about 20 feet per bird in the run when I am at work…more space after but I was thinking the deep litter method would bring with it many benefits compared to just a dirt run.

I've never done it. I have aways tried to do exactly the opposite and move the coops to fresh ground from time to time.

 

[Windrider]

I didn't think and hadn't thought for some time that the permanently confined coop and run model represent the majority on BYC. The poll is U_Stormcrows effort to put some data behind the two views.

See, I thought that BYC would be entirely people keeping backyard chickens, because, you know, the name of the site. I was astonished that people with 10+ acres were here and not on a homesteader's site instead!

Shad, what would you say is the best way to keep chickens for those of us with the 1/4 acre lot model? I answered that poll with what I did with my previous three hens, free access to the whole property supervised around 4-6 hours per day, less on weekdays and more on weekends.

I am trying to come up with a larger extended run that is more interesting and bug-filled, that doesn't compromise their safety that much. Maybe using my tread-in netting to rotate them around the yard. With only three bantams, I may be able to keep a decent garden plus have an interesting place for the chickens to root around.

Or, do you think, as you sometimes come across, that people with these small properties and no allowance for roosters shouldn't have chickens?

 

[Molpet]

There is a rail strike tomorrowand that is going to make getting to a from the chickens more difficult. I'm going to have to go earlier and shut them in before dusk to be in with a shout of catching a bus.

Shame they don't have rental bikes nearby.

 

[ManueB]

When chickens are well fed they'll forgo the boring stuff for something unusual. They'll eat the boring stuff when they're hungry enough.

My chickens normally jump on their commercial feed first thing in the morning but at this time of year most barely look at it and go get a part of the ranging buffet. Funny because with the draught I'd thought they would find nothing, but they chase all those little grass hoppers and butterflies. Just like the cats.

Thanks both. I will stop worrying unless I see a big swing in weight.
I think maybe they like this mash because I never give them mash normally and maybe they like the bright orange color.
It is just their regular food with vitamin B2 capsules added and mixed with water.

I think mash has that effect. At this time of year I give them a lot of wet feed because they don't spill it on the ground and I'm thinking it helps get them hydrated. They still run for it way more than for the same without the water.

 

[ManueB]

See, I thought that BYC would be entirely people keeping backyard chickens, because, you know, the name of the site. I was astonished that people with 10+ acres were here and not on a homesteader's site instead!

Same for me, I thought the proportion of confined chickens would be more important.
I also found interesting reading the answers that a quite a few people have different accomodations for different flocks. This is to be expected from small breeders but I didn't think it would be the case for backyard keepers. I also see this on other social medias : a few people that have both house hens, coop +run flock, and free ranging flock.